Tag: apogee

Apogee has written a cheque for fellow print outfit Danwood, claiming their glorious nuptials union will create Europe’s largest independent specialist in managing print.

Apogee made the announcement, confirming it has snapped up Danwood for an undisclosed sum.

In the announcement, Apogee said its board of directors, led by its joint CEOs Jason Colins and Robin Stanton-Gleaves, will continue to manage the group following the deal.

Apogee said Danwood’s presence in the SME, corporate and public sector space in the UK will “significantly enhance” its client base, which currently consists of 10,000 retained customers and 8,000 transactional ones.

Apogee’s Collins said: “This significant acquisition for Apogee provides us with the scale and reach to be a leading player in the European market for managed print services. Danwood has terrific strengths that complement Apogee’s offering and strategy, including a large client base of major corporate businesses, government and public sector organisations, and a strong service network that will increase the group’s coverage and capacity to support its clients across the UK and continental Europe.”

Managed print player Apogee has written a check for an Irish firm to add to the Scottish, Welsh and German businesses it has already collected this year.

In January Apogee’s joint CEO Jason Collins said: “Apogee will continue to grow its UK business in 2016 through organic growth and further acquisitions of organisations in the range of £1 million to £50 million turnover.”

The outfit has bought Welsh firm Kon-x in April and last month bought Scottish print and copy specialist Direct Business Systems.The DBS deal gave the firm a larger footprint North of the border and and now it has bought Hibernian Business Equipment in a bid to break into the Irish market.

Hibernian is a print management outfit with offices in Limerick, Dublin and Galway. Its main focus is government departments. Hibernian’s founder Gerald Wall will continue to lead the Irish business.

Hibernian managing director Wall said that being part of a larger group gave it the chance to compete for larger deals.

Managed print and document services outfit Apogee has woken up and found a big chunk of itself has been bought by private equity investor Equistone Partners Europe.

Maidstone-headquartered Apogee employs around 450 staff across 14 offices in the UK and mainland Europe selling hardware and managed services on kit from Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta and Kyocera.

The Apogee founders Jason Collins and Robin Stanton-Gleaves will stay in charge but Equistone’s minions Steve O’Hare and Andrew Backen will join the board. Equistone’s cash means that the company is valued at £185m, the parties said.

Money raised from sale will be used to fund an expansion programme.

Apogee sells its services to the likes of McDonalds, which bought a print infrastructure and managed service, as well as fashion label Ted Baker, PC maker Dell and BDO.

It is doing quite well. In 2014, Apogee turned over £66.1 million and reported operating profit of £7.47 million. In 2015 the firm bought fellow print managed print services business Balreed Group.